Based on the attitudes of some restaurant owners in San
Francisco, he's right.

At a dinner last night hosted by social network marketing startup
Roost, several restaurant
owners said they were getting fed up with daily deals pitches.

Joe Hargraves of Tacolicious said that he has
probably gotten 40 pitches over the last year from Groupon
and other daily deals salespeople. He refuses them all -- his
prices are already low, and he doesn't think he'll gain anything
by one-time discounts to people who otherwise wouldn't be
interested in his place.

Instead, he takes the several thousand dollars per month he would
spend on daily deals marketing and other forms advertising and
makes regular trips to Mexico, which helps him improve his
product. He also blogs about his trips,
which creates a much more personal connection to his customers.

Mark Pastore of Incanto -- who also had some
choice words about OpenTable -- called daily deals and other
discount marketing "the lowest form of marketing, like puns are
the lowest form of humor."

He said receives one or two pitches a week, mostly from young
kids just out of college "who don't know anything about
anything." He always invites them in to his restaurant to learn
more about his business, but says that discount marketing only
works for businesses that have nothing original or unique to
offer.

Matt Cohen of Off The
Grid, a company that schedules food truck appearances and
helps them navigate the legal minefield of operating in San
Francisco, says that the discounting concept can be valid. But he
thinks business owners need much more control on how and when
discounts run.

For instance, he'd like for food trucks in his network to be able
to offer spot discounts when the weather suddenly turns bad, but
then turn them off when the rainstorm disappears. Today's daily
deals services are more of an all or nothing proposiiton.

Eventually, these food industry participants agreed, the daily
deals business will have to evolve into a platform that lets
businesses handle discounting themselves. The current model,
where businesses pay a central discount brokerage like Groupon or
LivingSocial, can't survive.

This is only one small set of anecdotes, but it's bolstered by
other data.